Do You Think There Was an African Presence in Britain?

There remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush. Yet, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isle, there have been African and Caribbean men and women set at Britain's heart.

Professor Hakim Adi is the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain— he has been researching and writing about the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain for decades. Hakim joins Dan to chart a course through British history with an unobscured view of the actions of African and Caribbean people, sharing the stories of the Africans in Britain during the Roman period, Black Tudors, Stuarts and Victorians, and shedding light on the Windrush Myth.

This episode was produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Dougal Patmore.

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